American parents are deeply concerned with the ways their children choose to spend their time. Many parents feel they are failing in the task of protecting their children from violent or sexually explicit content, in TV shows, videos, DVDs, rap songs, computer games, and in material downloaded from the Internet. A closely related concern is the large number of hours children spend absorbing electronic entertainment instead of engaging in more mentally or physically stimulating activities, such as reading, playing, or engaging in sports. Unfortunately, American parents have little time to supervise what their children are doing. For example, the typical American employee works 350 hours or more each year than the typical European. Also, unlike the typical Japanese or South Korean mother, the typical American mother works very long hours, and is often a single parent.
In response to the demand for parental control of entertainment consumed by children, a wide range of technological solutions have sprung up. Examples include the V-chip for blocking access to unsuitable TV shows, and Internet filters for blocking access to unsuitable Internet sites. However, each of these previous technological solutions covers a single type of device. Even technologically sophisticated parent must keep track of both content and technology issues with each of the media their children use separately, which is very time consuming and inconvenient. Consider violence in computer games, for example. Many parents are not aware that some computer games may contain graphic violence, with players advancing by committing murders. Furthermore, parents do not currently have any convenient way of tracking the overall patters of entertainment consumption of their children. For example, a child may be wasting 20 hours a week watching TV, watching DVDs, playing computer games, and listening to obscene rap lyrics, without the parents being aware of the total amount of time involved. Accordingly, the need remains for a way to allow parents to centrally monitor and control their children's use of devices, and this need is paramount with respect to media consumption devices. The present invention fulfills this need.